[Kyodo: Korea] The United States assured Japan on Monday that it has no plans to hold bilateral talks with North Korea outside a framework of the six-nation process on denuclearizing Pyongyang, senior Japanese officials said. Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy who is traveling around Asia for consultations on the North Korean issue, referred to the plan during separate meetings in Tokyo with Vice Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka and Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign MinistryŽs Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.